This will be Swaraj’s first official visit to Nepal as the External Affairs Minister.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will set out for Nepal on July 25 on a three-day official visit, which is in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategy of reaching out to South Asian neighbours and building a strengthened relationship with them after a new political dispensation came in following the BJP’s victory in the Indian general elections.

This will be Swaraj’s first official visit to Nepal as the External Affairs Minister. She will lead the Indian delegation in the third Nepal-India Joint Commission meeting to be held July 26-27.

Established at the foreign ministers’ level in 1987, the joint commission is a bilateral mechanism to oversee the entire gamut of Nepal-India relations and provide directives on measures to further strengthen these relations.

The entire gamut of bilateral relations like water resources, energy cooperation, trade and transit, economic cooperation, boundary and border management and political and security issues have been identified as macro agendas for the joint commission. The two foreign ministers will sit for the meeting of the joint commission on both the days in Kathmandu.

During her visit, Swaraj will call on Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, and Constituent Assembly chairman Subash Chandra Nemwang besides other political leaders, including Pushpa Kamal Dahal, leader of the United Communist Party of Nepal.